At midnight on Friday, World College Radio Day began. World College Radio Day is an annual event that celebrates college and high school radio stations. On the day, all participating stations are on air for 24 hours straight. Listeners are encouraged to tune in and foster awareness for these radio stations and their role in promoting independent, diverse and local content.

This year, 604 stations participated in World College Radio Day. One of these stations to take part was 91.1 The Globe, the student-run station of Goshen College. There are currently nine paid student positions on the station staff. Two of these staff members are, program director, Mackenzie Miller, a junior communications major,. and student station manager Eduardo Alvarez-Barrera, a junior broadcasting major.

Alvarez-Barrera describes World College Radio Day as “an appreciation of college radio and how it serves the community and also how it serves students as an educational service.”

Miller recalls the chaos at the start of World College Radio Day, saying “There were 17 people in that studio and it’s a pretty big studio but we only have five mics, so people were crowded around mics.”

Miller described the feeling in the air throughout the day. She said “There is a certain type of energy that we carry with us and I just find that so intriguing and delightful.”

For Alvarez-Barrera, one of the highlights of the day came within the first hour when former Globe Sports director, Collin Echols called the station and spoke during one of the breaks in the music.

“He was just talking about what he’s been doing in life, what’s going on, just things like that. I feel like it’s so cool to reminisce about what the future is looking like for some people that were there a year ago,” said Alvarez-Barrera.

Jason Samuel ‘93 Director of WGCS FM and Globe Media, first introduced Miller and Alvarez-Barrera to the Globe through the Intro to Radio course, which has now been condensed into a five week block in the new Intro to Communications class rolled out this fall.

Alvarez-Barrera believes that one of Samuel’s most important traits is the passion he brings to the classroom. “Till this day, no other professor has came with an energy like Jason Samuel,” he said.

Alvarez-Barrera’s role in the Globe started with a simple conversation with Samuel. He explained, “I told him [Samuel] ‘Hey, I think being on the radio is really cool. I listen to a lot of DJ’s on the regular. What do I have to do?’ And now we’re here.”

Alvarez-Barrera also commented on the energy that Samuel brought to the night. He explains that Samuel “brought glowsticks. He brought me a purple hat and a cape to wear. Honestly, it was very interesting wearing that but it was fun. Everybody enjoyed it.”

Miller believes that the Globe has still taught some skills that will help her in her future endeavours. “As someone who doesn’t necessarily want to go into broadcasting, I still really enjoy working at the Globe as it teaches me many skills like audio production and film. We do a lot of video editing packages, writing in a broadcast style and storytelling is the main thing that I think the Globe teaches you how to do. It is also a great way to build community and make new friends and learn new skills along the way,” Miller says.

Miller also commented on how the Globe has helped her develop professionally, saying “I work predominantly in the music side of things and I get to go to concerts and I have conversations with promoters or exchange emails and I feel like that’s a very valuable network to have”

Miller also gets satisfaction from seeing her colleagues develop professionally. In particular, she noted the development of sophomore Ana Alves and junior Kenna Rohrer this summer working for the station. Miller highlighted that “they started off with us having to teach them how to do it exactly, the basics.” Alvarez-Barrera also  I even said on the radio that I was so happy to see they grew so much to being able to do really great stories in under a minute and say them to the community”

Alvarez-Barrera and Miller both encouraged members of the Goshen College student body to consider joining the team. “Our doors are open to anybody that would like to come. If you ever see us walking by, just talk to us and be like ‘I want to be part of the Globe’.” He also explained that despite the fact that both Mackenzie and him are both students, saying “We have classes. We have struggles. We have everything. But we are so accepting of anybody who wants to join.”

Alvarez-Barrera and Miller both referenced Samuels three key words in order to be successful with the Globe, which are “availability, dependability, accountability”